The Outlaw (1943) - Video On Demand

The Outlaw - Movie Review

The Outlaw is a 1943 western, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jane Russell. The film is notable as Russell's breakthrough role, turning the young actress into a sex symbol and a Hollywood icon. The film revolves around a fictional relationship between Doc Holliday and Billy the Kid and their feud over a woman called Rio.

Doc Holliday (Walter Huston) meets the notorious Billy the Kid (Jack Beutel), who has stolen his horse. Doc's old friend Pat Garrett, now a sheriff, wants to arrest the Kid for murder, but Doc helps his young friend flee to a hideout, where Billy meets Rio (Jane Russell), a beautiful young woman who soon finds herself falling in love with him. As Doc and Billy try to evade the law, they run into a series of adventures involving Indians and gunfights, culminating in a fierce showdown.

Although the movie was completed in 1941, it was released to only a limited showing two years later. It did not see a general release until 1946. The delay was a result of Hughes defying the Hays Code, which set the standard of morally acceptable content in motion pictures. By showcasing Jane Russell's breasts in both the movie and the poster artwork, The Outlaw became one of the most controversial pictures of its time. Hughes even created a new type of bra just for this movie.

In 1941, director Howard Hughes, while filming The Outlaw, felt that the camera did not do justice to Jane Russell's large bust. He employed his engineering skills to design an underwired, cantilevered bra to emphasize her assets. Hughes added rods of curved structural steel that were sewn into the brassiere below each breast. The rods were connected to the bra's shoulder straps. The arrangement allowed the breasts to be pulled upward and made it possible to move the shoulder straps away from the neck. The design allowed for any amount of bosom to be freely exposed.

Regardless, the emphasis on her breasts proved too much for the Hollywood Production Code Administration, which ordered cuts to the film. To obtain the Boards' required Seal of Approval, Hughes reluctantly removed about 40 feet, or a half-minute, of footage that featured Jane Russell's bosom. He still had problems getting the film distributed, so Hughes schemed to create a public outcry for his film to be banned. The resulting controversy generated enough interest to get The Outlaw into the theaters for one week in 1943, before being withdrawn due to objections by the Code censors. When the film was finally released in 1950, it was a box office hit.

The Outlaw - Cast & Crew

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